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Thursday, March 21, 2013

The Best Deck In the Format

Better than ever.

Hello
everyone!

Today I’ll be discussing the (in)arguable BDIF of the current format – Landorus
EX/Tornadus EX/Mewtwo EX/ (Garbodor). Once an underdog - now the best deck in
the format. What happened to the former BDIF Blastoise/Keldeo EX and why is
Landorus EX quickly become the best card in the format even though it’s still a
Water weak Pokémon?

The deck got no new attackers from the Plasma Storm, but
something happened to the deck to make it as good as it is now. What then
happened? That’s what I’m to find out in today’s entry.

Once again when we
look at the skeleton, we see how many staple cards there really are in the
format. Almost every Basic decks’ trainer lines are very similar and thanks to
Hypnotoxic Laser, they’ve become even more similar! This number of staple cards
can be seen from the card amounts of this “skeleton”. Even though the list is a
skeleton, it already has 54 cards in it. And in the end the only arguable card
in the list is the 2nd Bouffalant. It can easily be replaced with
for example Terrakion, because Terrakion is very good if you are running into a
Darkrai EX-heavy metagame.

So, what has changed in this decks’ built to make it so good that it suddenly
has the biggest amount of number 1 and top2 spots in the States? Well,
Hypnotoxic Laser and Virbank City Gym has changed. Hypnotoxic Laser was way too
easy to put into the deck. Just take off all the PlusPowers (which most lists
already played 4 copy of) and replace them with Hypnotoxic Lasers. However,
finding space for Virbank City Gym is more difficult. I’ve seen some lists play
only 1 copy of Virbank City Gym or just no Virbank City Gym’s in order to make
the deck more consistent, but I think Virbank City Gym is worth the space in
this deck, because it not only adds the viability of Hypnotoxic Laser, but also
makes Tornadus EX a real beast in the early game.

Tornadus EX not only is very good against stage decks in the early game thanks
to Virbank City Gym, but it’s also the MVP in the mirror match. Fighting
resistance takes care of your opponent’s Landorus EX and Power Blast can be
extremely good against Mewtwo EXs, as you can discard the DCE from Tornadus EX
in order to avoid the KO from X-Ball. It doesn’t matter if you run Garbodor or
not, the player who has more Tornadus EXs in his deck, has the advantage in
this mirror match.

Also, donking has become almost too easy for this deck thanks to PoisonCombo.
Here are some possible T1 scenarios.

To good to be true? Well not really, because it’s the truth. This deck solely
almost makes all the stage2 decks unplayable. Whenever starting with a
Squirtle, Tynamo or Deino, you will be always afraid of the T1 donk. And no,
the game doesn’t need to end there, but if your opponent is able to get the T1
60 with Tornadus EX to your active Squirtle and they go first, you will have
very tough time coming back to the game, if they have enough Catchers to get
rid of your other Squirtles.

Landorus EX has always been enough to just destroy most Eelektrik decks as long
as you have enough Catchers. Bouffalant/Eelektrik is the only deck that can
stand a chance against T1 Landorus EX rush. And even it has trouble now thanks
to the PoisonCombo.

Magical numbers are also very important when it comes to the things that the
PoisonCombo added for this deck’s arsenal. In the past you needed 6 energy for
your Mewtwo EX in order to OHKO a Keldeo EX with 3 energy. 6 energy is almost
an impossibility for a deck like this, which as no energy acceleration.
However, thanks to the PoisonCombo you now only need 4 energy to Mewtwo EX in
order to OHKO Keldeo EX. That’s a huge change and this difference alone is
enough to shift the balance of the match-up to Landorus EX’s favor.

Garbodor?

To understand does
Garbodor make the deck better, we need to look at the results from the States.
(Copypaste from the pokegym.net).Masters

I’ve always been a fan of stastistics, but you rarely see the most deck to win
the most States in Seniors AND Masters in the first weekend (Landorus/Garbodor).
I think the last time thing were like this, it was the Luxchomp season. When
the same deck is the number one in Seniors and Masters, it must be a good deck
– maybe even the BDIF.

What I think should be noted, is that even though Landorus/Mewtwo WITHOUT Garbodor
had the most top placements, the Garbodor variants are the ones that have WON
the tournaments in the first weekend. And if you are aiming at the tournament
victory, you should notice this. I also think that the reason for Garbodor
variants success is pretty self-explanatory – the deck doesn’t have any bad
match-ups. Without Garbodor you might struggle against fast Blastoise/Keldeo EX
and Klinklang, but with Garbodor, both of these match-ups turn into very
favorable match-ups. Of course Garbodor makes match-ups like mirror a more
challenging, but it seems that the best players think that it’s risk worth
taking and that it has really paid off.

However, as you can see, things turned around in the 2nd weekend.
The reason for this is pretty obvious as well. Landorus EX decks without
Garbodor have the edge in the mirrors and when everyone saw Garbodor to
dominate the first weekend, it’s only natural the best “counter” decks to be
played in the second weekend. Wise Blastoise players also found an opening here,
because the success of Garbodors in the first weekend, would definitely
decrease the amount of them in the second weekend.

Match-ups with and without Garbodor

Blastoise/Keldeo
EX…

…without Garbodor

Blastoise is one of the toughest match-ups for Landorus EX without the
Garbodor – as long as the Blastoise decks runs a decent amount of Keldeo EXs. Landorus
EX is completely useless attacker here form T2 onwards, because Squirtle can’t
be damaged when benched. That’s why Stadiums are a must if you are running a
Landorus EX without Garbodor. Thanks to Virbanks and your opponent’s Tropical
Beaches, Tornadus EX is your MVP in this match-up. You should get the early
prizes with Tornadus EX and then use Bouffalant or Mewtwo EX to get your
opponent’s attacker KOed. The key to this match-up is going first (obviously)
and just getting a good prize-lead before your opponent set ups his/her
attackers.

…with Garbodor

With Garbodor things – not so surprisingly – gets a lot easier. Most
Blastoise decks run 1 or even 0 Tool Scrappers. This gave Garbodor based decks
a nice boost in the first weekend of States. Blastoise doesn’t work = Blastoise
becomes even more clunky than Landorus/Garbodor. If you watch any games between
Garbodor decks, you’ll notice that it seems that both players don’t do
anything. The reason for this is that Garbodor usually cripples your own decks’
consistency while at the same time it destroys your opponent’s Abilites. Even
Darkrai EX becomes clunky after Garbodot hits the field. To see this in
practice, check some games from thetopcut.net! Even the game’s best players’
deck become clunky thanks to Garbodor.

Eelektrik variants

…with and without Garbodor

Landorus EX is the sole reason Eelekrik variants haven’t been doing as well
as they could. Eelektrik decks don’t really have bad match-ups and in the end
have positive match –ups across the metagame – if it wasn’t for Landorus EX. If
Landorus EX deck goes first, one Landorus EX may be enough to destroy the whole
Eelekrik deck as long as the Landorus EX keeps drawing the stuff. I have seen
some remarkable comebacks from Bouffalant/Eelektriks, but in my opinion those
are usually just random flukes. Overall, the match-up is so favorable for a
Landorus EX deck with or without Garbodor that it’s difficult to lose the game.
However, if you are insecure about the match-up, just add Garbodor – after that
it’s an autowin as everything from Bouffalant’s Abilites stop working.

Darkrai EX variants

…without Garbodor

You have the type advantage. However, don’t let it fool you. Darkrai EX is
super strong and a lot more mobile than Landorus EX. Also, since you don’t have
any energy acceleration, you have to be very careful when attaching the energy
to your Pokémon. The key to win this match-up is not to play any useless
Pokémon on the bench (as they can be Catchered) and heavily rely on your non-EX
attackers. Both your non-EX attacker options (Bouffalant and Terrakion) are
pain in the butt for a Darkrai EX deck, and you should make the most of it.

Granted, these match-ups usually come down to the late game Ns and whether the
winning person draws and energy or a Switch or something as luck-based, but as
you know that the game will come down to that kind of things, remember to
discard the useless resources during the game in order to increase the chance
of drawing the necessary cards in the late game. You can always control the probabilities
with your own play style.

…with Garbodor

Garbodor makes your deck more inconsistent, but at the same time, it makes
Darkrai EX more immobile as well. If the Darkrai EX variant relies on Computer
Search and Keldeo EX, Garbodor gives you a huge edge in the match. However, if
they run Escape Rope and Scramble Switch, things get trickier, because they
aren’t as vulnerable to your Hypnotoxic Lasers as you could think.

Also, one of the trickiest things in this match-up is when does the Darkrai EX
play down the Virbank City Gym. It’s very difficult to fit Virbank into same
deck as Garbodor, so you rely heavily on your opponent’s Virbank. This is by
far one of the most intriguing match-ups of the current format. It’s slow and
full of difficult decisions. Naturally everything can often come down to one
coin flip (thanks to Hypnotoxic Laser), but thankfully it mostly comes down to
the skill-level of the players.

Klinklang/EX

…without Garbodor

The match-up heavily depends on how
many non-EX attackers you have and what kind of opening hand you have. If you
are able to take Klinks down with your Landorus EX, before your opponent is
able to set-up any Klinklangs, it will be a super easy match-up. However, if
your opponent goes first and get T2 Klinklang, you are in trouble – unless you
run 2-3 non-EX attackers or Victini.

Victini gets rid of the Klinklang problem easily, but I don’t know if it’s
worth the space, because Klinklang isn’t that heavily played. I would probably
just go with 2 Bouffalant and 1 Terrakion, if I were to expect Klinklangs. It’s
more than enough for you to destroy their Cobalion EX and Cobalions.

…with Garbodor

Things just got too easy. When you play 2 Trubbishes down, your opponent
probably just scoops at that point. As long as you have at least a nearly “standard”
set-up, Garbodor just destroys Klinklang. Cobalion EX is a horrible attacker
and the same goes with Cobalion. And as long as they don’t have any energy
acceleration, and not even Klinklang(BLW), it’s pretty much the game when you
shut down their Abilties.

Conclusion

I don’t personally like Landorus EX variants, due to their clunkyness,
but even I can’t deny the fact that it’s the BDIF of the current format. Whether
you play Garbodor or not is completely up to your personal opinion and there is
no right or wrong choice when it comes to it. However, if your metagame has a
lot of Eelektriks, Blastoises and Klinklangs, it might be a good choice to run
Garbodor, even though it decreases consistency.
I will have my last States this weekend, and am aiming for a jackpot there. All
my byes come down to this one tournament and if I succeed, I may be able to get
2 byes. If I fail, I won’t get any byes. Tough, huh? Maybe I should have played
more tournaments this season…

I dont think a skeleton would have 4 Landorus ex. I think 3 is just fine and 3 tornadus ex. Also I feel that Scramble switch is much better in this deck than computer search because of the added switch as well as the late game energy excell, but it does just come down to player preference i guess. I was also wondering why you didnt talk about energy switch and max potion, but I guess that could very well be the extra blanks. Im not really feeling the bicana in here because you cant usually play down your hand with only 3 ultra ball, but I guess its assumeing that you are ahead prizes and your opponent N's you, so then I guess bianca would be good. Aside from that nice article!!

What kind of chance does Hammertime have against this deck? I mean if they get rid of the DCE and get a few Crushing Hammer heads won't the deck come to a halt? With no energy acceleration or recovery isn't it then at a big loss to Darkrai + Hammers?

Thank you, also I am sort of like a stereotypical scared little girl when it comes to big basics, Tornadus ex is soo evil with it's 60 FT donks that I like to call it "Bitemenadus" or "Screwyounadus" as that's what it does to me waaaay too much.... I need help. T_T lol

I played Landorus/Tornadus/Mewtwo a little while ago and I've already given up on the deck because it sucked so bad. I got wins with a rogue Camerupt deck than it. In my opinion, Landorus/Tornadus/Mewtwo is the worst deck in format and Landorus is the worst card in format.Your regional results probably miss out on 90% of the rest of the worlds results and it's only the first weekend, who's to say that Landorus/Tornadus/Mewtwo won't come absolute last? If you wanted to make a solid statement about which deck is BDIF, you should of waited until regionals were finished and you included more results from different countries. I hope you delete this until then cause this could piss off a lot of people.

Esa you mentioned that you have begun building MD-on (assuming MD-CL) decks again because you loved that format. To be honest that is my favourite format that I have played in and have built MD-CL decks at the start of this season.

After that back story comes the reason why I am posting this. After states there is downtime. A time when no large tournaments are really played. In this time could you do an article on MD-CL decks? I would love to see an article which just went in depth on decks like Luxchomp, LostVileGar, MewDos, DialgaChomp, VileChamp, Uxie donk and other decks that you think were good or fun at the time. Maybe just like a decklist out kinda thing with a short description for people who don't know the strategy of the deck or something and a list of possible techs and your opinion on them. Not anything too serious, just so that I could get another perspective on issues. For example should I run Blissey in LVG, should I run chatot/smeargle in luxchomp, how many mew/psychic energy in MewDos. Things like that.